PUNE: The pot is boiling but not bubbling yet for the son and nephew of ailing Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray. Both have been lately engaged in attacking each other and issuing threats at their campaign rallies for the coming polls to the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly scheduled for Oct. 13.
But at the time when his son, the working president of the Sena Uddhav, and estranged nephew the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj are spewing venom against each other, Thackeray has likened his estranged nephew to Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan
In an editorial on Thursday in the Sena mouthpiece Saamna, Thackeray compared Raj with Jinnah, saying that the Congress was using Raj to divide the Marathi votes just like the British did by using Muslim League chief Jinnah to divide India.
“The Congress is dreaming that they would once again come to power by dividing Marathi votes. And for this, they are using MNS,” Thackeray wrote in the editorial. “Jinnah created Pakistan by breaking the nation on the basis of religion. Neither he nor Pakistan was happy after the partition.”
India also continues to be in pain. The divide-and-rule policy has been adopted by Congress in Maharashtra.
“Now a new Jinnah (Raj) at home is dividing Marathi people,” Thackeray, said adding that there is no place for Marathi people in Congress. “It is Kripashankar Singh, Murli Deora and Gurudas Kamat who decide affairs in Mumbai. Congress could not find a Marathi for the post of Mumbai Congress president.”
Maharashtra is united under the saffron leadership of the Sena and would not be divided easily, he said.
Meanwhile in a response to Uddhav’s veiled warning to his cousin Raj at a rally in Mumbai yesterday, Raj, angered by Uddhav’s accusations of his being an agent of the Congress-NCP alliance, hit back by questioning whether he was “a betel nut leaf shop owner to take the betel nut,” which is parlance for contract used by underworld criminals. Raj said that he had heard of Uddhav warning him not to attack the Sena again.
Raj in his speech on Wednesday also blasted the Sena-BJP alliance for remaining mum and keeping their mouth shut on what he termed as “wrong policies of the Congress-NCP.”
“Agitations of these parties didn’t yield anything as they protested on nonissues and only for gaining media attention,” he alleged.
